£500 For New Build

Gray2233 · 18 Jul 2025 at 00:24

AndrewC said:
Hi
An old post but the PC is still going 10 years on though time is catching up with it
I cannot upgrade to Windows 11 because something is not compatible on my pc, but the pc still runs fine and i am only mentioning that incase it affects my question.
I bought a game off Steam that needs 16gb of RAM to work and i only have 8gb on this pc.
Is it possible for me to upgrade my RAM to 16gb or even more on my pc, i just don't know if more Ram would work on my motherboard and what RAM could i use?
I have other things going on in my life just now which means a new pc is not viable just now and i was hoping an upgrade of the RAM might work and give me time to get a new computer.
Hope you can help.

Which game did you buy exactly, and can you give me the EXACT specification of your PC?

Reading through an old thread like this takes a bit of time.

There are ways to bypass hardware restrictions with W11 installations:

How to install Windows 11 on unsupported devices

With the release of Windows 11, Microsoft has imposed certain requirements for hardware compatibility, including the need for TPM 2.0, specific CPU...

www.ifixit.com

It may or may not work, usually it does from what I understand. But that wont fix any limitations a game might need requirement wise. You often see them using 16gb as a baseline due to it being a standard, so it might not necessarily be necessary, but 8gb of RAM with modern PC use is going to be a bad time.

AndrewC · 18 Jul 2025 at 00:37

Device Name
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4440 CPU @ 3.10GHz 3.10 GHz
Installed RAM 8.00 GB
Storage 233 GB SSD CT250BX100SSD1, 932 GB HDD WDC WD10EZEX-00BN5A0
Graphics Card NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 (976 MB)
System Type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Pen and touch No pen or touch input is available for this display

The motherboard is a Micro-ATX H81, features intuitive UEFI BIOS, superb integrated graphics performance and unique USB 3.0 performance.

H81M-K｜Motherboards｜ASUS Global

Experience superior tech with H81M-K! Its unique USB 3.0 performance, innovative ASUS features, and high-speed connectivity redefine your daily interactions.

www.asus.com

The game is "Call to Arms - Gates of Hell Ostfront" that i got on Steam.
When trying to play the game with a friend for the first time tonight it loaded up to 94% and then an error message appeared and the game crashed, it happened the second time as well.

Andrew.

Gray2233 · 18 Jul 2025 at 01:15

AndrewC said:
Device Name
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4440 CPU @ 3.10GHz 3.10 GHz
Installed RAM 8.00 GB
Storage 233 GB SSD CT250BX100SSD1, 932 GB HDD WDC WD10EZEX-00BN5A0
Graphics Card NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 (976 MB)
System Type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Pen and touch No pen or touch input is available for this display

The motherboard is a Micro-ATX H81, features intuitive UEFI BIOS, superb integrated graphics performance and unique USB 3.0 performance.

H81M-K｜Motherboards｜ASUS Global

Experience superior tech with H81M-K! Its unique USB 3.0 performance, innovative ASUS features, and high-speed connectivity redefine your daily interactions.

www.asus.com

The game is "Call to Arms - Gates of Hell Ostfront" that i got on Steam.
When trying to play the game with a friend for the first time tonight it loaded up to 94% and then an error message appeared and the game crashed, it happened the second time as well.

Andrew.

Your GPU is massively below system requirements for the game, it might even be totally unsupported.

You lack the RAM to launch it and have good results, they do not even list a minimum CPU on the store page but the "recommended" is a 3700X, which launched close to a decade after your processor.

There might be workarounds to get things going, but ultimately I suspect you'll need an entirely new PC.

AndrewC · 18 Jul 2025 at 01:21

It was worth checking out.

Having a look at the pc's on Overclookers homepage, a new pc tower with at leat 16gb of RAM starts just over £1000
It'll have to wait.

Thanks, Andrew.

Gray2233 · 18 Jul 2025 at 01:28

AndrewC said:
It was worth checking out.

Having a look at the pc's on Overclookers homepage, a new pc tower with at leat 16gb of RAM starts just over £1000
It'll have to wait.

Thanks, Andrew.

If you're comfortable building it for yourself you could build a pretty good system for under £900.

I know that can be scary but if you decide to give it a shot please let us know. If not, the one recommendation I'd offer is to make sure whatever graphics card you end up with has at least 12-16gb of RAM.

aaronyuri · 18 Jul 2025 at 01:50

AndrewC said:
It was worth checking out.

Having a look at the pc's on Overclookers homepage, a new pc tower with at leat 16gb of RAM starts just over £1000
It'll have to wait.

Thanks, Andrew.

Your most cost effective upgrade would be a used 3-5 year old rig. Huge step up from what you have today and it definitely wouldn't break the bank compared to a new build.

AMDPower · 18 Jul 2025 at 07:14

AndrewC said:
Device Name
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4440 CPU @ 3.10GHz 3.10 GHz
Installed RAM 8.00 GB
Storage 233 GB SSD CT250BX100SSD1, 932 GB HDD WDC WD10EZEX-00BN5A0
Graphics Card NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 (976 MB)
System Type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Pen and touch No pen or touch input is available for this display

The motherboard is a Micro-ATX H81, features intuitive UEFI BIOS, superb integrated graphics performance and unique USB 3.0 performance.

H81M-K｜Motherboards｜ASUS Global

Experience superior tech with H81M-K! Its unique USB 3.0 performance, innovative ASUS features, and high-speed connectivity redefine your daily interactions.

www.asus.com

The game is "Call to Arms - Gates of Hell Ostfront" that i got on Steam.
When trying to play the game with a friend for the first time tonight it loaded up to 94% and then an error message appeared and the game crashed, it happened the second time as well.

Andrew.

the problem might be the instruction set of the cpu rather than windows 11. It might be worth firing an email to the developer if possible to ask them. Some games will not play on old CPU because they are missing some instructions sets, like my i7 intel xeon 5670 wont play ghost of tsushima or last of us part 1. It might have nothing to do with windows 11. There are some workaround(depending on the game) but the frame rates make it not worth the hassle.

as suggested you most probably can still install windows 11 on your pc, you can google how to do it, its not very complicated. I would not bother with registry hacks method but use a program like rufus and just follow the instructions. If you install windows 11 and it works and the game actually runs then maybe installing 16GB ram might help, 16gb dd3 is really cheap now so it might be worth a shot but I would not put too much hope in that as the 4 core cpu might hold you back quite a bit.

really you need much more new hardware, shame you don't have access to the members market(i think you need 100 posts and be member for few years which you are, I would not spam posts it will get you blocked). If you give us a budget maybe we can spec something you can build yourself with second hand hardware and it will be MUCH more powerful than what you currently have.

worst case scenario, you can just refund the game in steam if you have not played it.

sastusbulbas · 18 Jul 2025 at 21:13

Best thing you can do is 1st create a budget you can afford to spend. Then see where you can go from there.

Even in that means re-using your old PC case, PSU and hard drives. These can easily be upgraded later.

You could even do a CPU/Motherboard/cooler/memory one month, GPU the next. NVMe storage and a case or PSU later as needed.

Something like an AMD 7600X can be had for not too much at around £145, pair it with a decent B650 motherboard such as The Asus Tuf Gaming B650 at around £140, use a £15 CPU cooler from Thermalright and just get the cheapest 16gb of DDR5 memory to start you off, Even the B-Grade listings start around £30 for 16gb to £60 for 32gb kits. So £300 to £360 for a decent motherboard/CPU/Ram starter package. Best budget graphics card would seem to be the AMD 9060xt 16gb at £330. Best value for any sort of storage is simply to buy a 2tb Gen 4NVMe when you can afford it, add a second later if you need more.

Below is by no means the must have budget PC to get, and some of it may be cheaper if you shop around, but it represents the sort of budget PC you can build these days. For me the cheaper motherboards are personally lacking, around £120-£160 seems to be the sweetspot for value and features in AM5, the AMD 7600x CPU and 9060xt 16gb GPU are what to aim for if looking for decent performance from a budget 1080p gaming system but the ARC 580 saves £100. 16gb of DDR 5 would be enough until prices either come down, a sale arises, or you need to upgrade.

My basket at OcUK:

1 x AMD Ryzen 5 7600X Six Core 5.30GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DG-AM) = £169.99
1 x MSI Pro B840M-B (AMD AM5) B840 Micro-ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-MSI-05550) = £89.99
1 x Kingston FURY Beast 16GB EXPO (2x8GB) 5600Mhz DDR5 CL36 Dual Channel Kit - Black (SKU: MEM-KNG-02339) = £49.99
1 x Arctic MX-4 Thermal Compound (4g) (SKU: TH-01B-AR) = £4.99
1 x Thermalright Assassin Spirit 120 Evo Dark CPU Cooler - 120 mm (SKU: COO-TLR-02667) = £14.99
1 x Acer Nitro Intel ARC B580 OC 12GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-ACR-04171) = £239.99
1 x be quiet! SYSTEM POWER 10 650W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply (SKU: CA-14V-BQ) = £54.95
1 x Kolink Observatory MX Mesh ARGB Midi Tower Case - White (SKU: CA-086-KK) = £36.66
1 x Crucial E100 480GB NVMe PCIe 4.0 M.2 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-CRU-04341) = £28.99

Total: £690.54 (includes delivery: £0.00)

After recent discussions regarding old technology, second hand, and last gen AM4 vs later gen like AM5, I personaly gained the opinion that the reality is that a budget AM5 system is often going to offer the best performance per pound and an upgrade path.

Remember even second hand, 16gb of 2400Mhz DDR3 is costing £20-£30 which is around the price you could pick up 16gb of DDR4 3600Mhz or 16gb of DDR5 6000Mhz by frugal shopping for B grade or sale items.

The only CPU's worth looking at for old H81 platforms are 4770k or 4790K which again are around £30 to £50 in some second hand markets and only really worthwhile if you are overclocking them in a Z87/Z97 motherboard, and still lacking compaired to todays budget CPU's. Personally I see that as money off even the most basic £120 8500G AM5 cpu.